Day Seventeen: We arrived at the station, gathered our luggage, and hailed a cab to the Thrifty Car rental office in downtown Chicago. It was only  a few blocks, so we arrived there quickly. We got our car, loaded our luggage and headed for Rolling Meadows (a northwest suburb of Chicago), where the corporate office of Mary's employer is located. Mary called a former workmate and arranged dinner, after which we took showers and got some lunch, then went back to the Holiday Inn. We retired early, as neither of us slept last night on the train.

Day Eighteen: Monday, August 30th was a work day for Mary. We had breakfast and I drove her to the office; then I set out to buy detergent and find a laundromat....five loads later, I was back at the Holiday Inn folding clothes. Mary worked till 5:30 or so and I drove around some and napped, (I was still behind on my sleep quota from our bumpy night on the train). We met up with Mary's cousin Catherine and a present and former co-worker for dinner in downtown Chicago. We returned to the Holiday Inn and had to pack, as we were leaving for Madison,WI early the next morning.

Day Nineteen: We drove west on I-90, which in Illinois is a toll road, to Madison where Mary has a client she needed to meet with for a day's worth of software training. We stayed a a local motel; and while Mary worked, I sat by the pool. Madison has railroads running through it, but I never found a yard or anything running on the rails. We had an early dinner at Carlos O'Kelly's (a non-memorable event) and then organized our packing  somewhat for our next few days on the train.